updated 12:05 pm EDT, Sat May 7, 2011

Sony stalls PSN restoration as names leak

Sony in an update said that its PlayStation Network restoration would take longer than expected. The company was still in final testing but said "additional comprehensive system checks" were needed before it went back up. The company explained that the estimate given at its media conference in Japan of a week-long process hadn't factored in the then-unknown SOE breach and needed extra time.

No updated schedule had been given.

In an additional statement, Sony added that it had seen the first signs of PSN information getting out. About 2,500 names, including some of their address information, had been posted on a single website. The site itself was taken down, and Sony had also been asking for any "residual links" to be pulled as well, Sony said.

The PSN breach is widely considered the worst incident in Sony history and compromised 77 million PSN and Qriocity accounts as well as about 24 million SOE accounts. The attack might have been perpetrated by a splinter group from Anonymous that decided to punish Sony for its anti-modification policies by going a step further than what most of Anonymous would have wanted.